Digital Cameras, canon, canon eos, france, gadgets, photography, swimming, swimming pools...

Underwater Camera Rig Sends Photos Around the World in Seconds

Alain Bernard of France broke a record last week when he swam the 100m freestyle in 47.60 seconds at the European Swimming Championships. At the same time, underwater photographer Wolfgang Rattay broke another far geekier, and therefore far more important, record of his own using a voyeuristic remote controlled underwater camera rig.

As Bernard entered the pool on his way to making history, Rattay managed to capture one of a kind images and beamed them around the world in minutes thanks to a custom set up that combines a Canon EOS 1D Mark 2N with a 15mm fish-eye lens, waterproof cable and a transmitter sends everything to a waiting laptop. From there, the images were worldwide in minutes, which is far faster than any of Rattay's soggy bottomed competitors. "I don't need to wait for a couple of hours for the competition to end before jumping into the pool to retrieve my CF card, as do the other photographers," he said. What's the fun in that, Rattay? You afraid of a few cannonballs? [Reuters]

2:01 PM on Sat Mar 29 2008
By Jack Loftus
16,421 views
18 comments

Comments

lafond66 at 02:16 PM on 03/29/08
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I'm surprised no other photographer's had the idea to use a waterproof transmitter. Would the water cause any issues with the signal?
gadgetfanatic at 02:17 PM on 03/29/08
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Holy...
digodemais at 02:20 PM on 03/29/08
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Not to take any props aways from this guy, but I can't believe no one has thought of this until now.
zarchitect at 02:42 PM on 03/29/08
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Why need the transmitter now that he could use the wifi SD card? You know of a good invention people? Get me lunch when you make millions off it.. A bluetooth remote/transmitter. No more wires and could transmit your pictures to your lappy instantly. Just create a Bluetooth Transmitter Grip attachment or something... Will put flash cards out of business!!!

Also, I hope that housing is nice and water tight... would hate to see an EOS 1D Mark2 go down in a DAS BOOT fashion!
discounteggroll at 03:58 PM on 03/29/08
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Connectedness Index: 177
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gizmodo.com posting on gizmodo.com-I can live with that. Frankly, after review I am a fan of "it's" posts (even funnier is that at the bottom of the page it shows that it got the banana hammer [gizmodo.com])

Also love this quote:
"I don't need to wait for a couple of hours for the competition to end before jumping into the pool to retrieve my CF card, as do the other photographers"

!!!moc.odomzig
kratos76 at 04:11 PM on 03/29/08
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Where are the upskirts?
TVGenius at 04:18 PM on 03/29/08
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You know, they've had cameras on tracks running along the bottom of the pool for TV for about the last 3 summer Olympics...
Amiash is not allowed at 04:35 PM on 03/29/08
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"gizmodo.com's ability to comment is not enabled"

this is like the happiest word i've ever read.
I'm crying!
spaceman37 at 04:59 PM on 03/29/08
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@zarchitect: I was thinking the same thing. The 1D has a CF and a secondary SD slot. You can tell the camera to write raw on one card and jpeg on the other, or raw on both, etc. The SD card of course can be the eye-fi. I mean to try this with my 1D (just not underwater).
willyolio at 05:06 PM on 03/29/08
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@kratos76:
if only he had that camera a few years earlier.
[findarticles.com]
moophisto at 05:17 PM on 03/29/08
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the eye-fi seems to be a nice toy and interesting concept for sure, but for professional use like in this kind of situation, it's probably not going to be a lot of help due to several issues regarding the wireless performance - very limited range, doesn't work with all access points, very slow performance (2gb would take 3 hours) etc. At least according to the dpreview test here [www.dpreview.com]
ocdude at 05:21 PM on 03/29/08
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:( gizmodo.com has no friends.

Link in case image does not work
Gary_7vn at 05:24 PM on 03/29/08
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Upskirts legal.

[www.ktul.com]

Downskirts I am not so sure about.
Stalhandske at 05:55 PM on 03/29/08
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@lafond66 "Would the water cause any issues with the signal?"

Well about 4 meters of water blocks all radioactive radiation ;)
achrome at 11:02 PM on 03/29/08
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a moving camera would be so distracting, this is amazing though..
Makkuro at 08:11 AM on 03/30/08
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@zarchitect: You know Wifi is 2.4Ghz, right? And you know water absorb anything that's in the 2.4Ghz spectrum, right? Thus Microwave oven runs on 2.4Ghz... water molecule get excited by 2.4Ghz microwave, absorb them, vibrate, and create heat. So, no, Wifi signal won't work at all inside the pool.

If then wireless connection is on a different spectrum, then it maybe possible... just not with the EyeFi card. But it would still need rather powerful transmitter. Using the waterproof cord (what cable isn't water proof??) is probably the cheaper and better idea.

Peace.
Stalhandske at 06:22 AM on 03/31/08
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@Makkuro: There is loads of non true waterproof cable. Did you know that the plastic hull of boats absorbs abouth 5% water of the boats dead weight..
soldstatic at 09:40 PM on 03/31/08
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wireless transmitters through the water... not very likely to happen on a consumer level any time soon. Maybe have a wifi transmitter with an antenna with a foatie on the end so it just barely pokes out of the water, i could see that. electromagnetic radiation is difficult through air, but we've pretty much mastered that. through water... much more difficult i think. especially when higher bandwidth is needed. And you need high frequencies.

Maybe with some sort of CDMA protocol... eh no don't think so